Libya Live Blog - April 4

Libya Live Blog - April 4

As the uprising in Libya continues, we update you with the latest developments from our correspondents, news agencies and citizens across the globe. Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

• Timestamp: 

  10:19am

  US warplanes will withdraw from Libyan airspace late today, the AP reports, citing a NATO official. America kept its jets in the area on Monday in response to a request from NATO.

  Even after the withdrawal, US communications, surveillance, and refueling planes will remain on hand.

• Timestamp: 

  9:23am

  Seif al-Islam and Saadi Gaddafi, two of the leader's sons, are floating a plan to end the conflict in Libya by removing their father from power, the New York Times has reported, citing "a diplomat" and a Libyan official.

  The plan puts Seif and Saadi at odds with brothers Khamis and Mutassim, who are considered more hardliners. Khamis commands a brigade of troops specially intended to suppress internal unrest, and Mutassim is a national security advisor to his father.

  One person close to Seif and Saadi told the Times: "They have hit so many brick walls with the old guard, and if they have the go-ahead, they will bring the country up quickly."

  While it's true, as the Times' sources say, that the fighting has reached a stalemate, many Libyan rebels will be unwilling to accept Seif or Saadi staying in positions of power.  

• Timestamp: 

  5:59am

  The current official line from the US Defence Department on why it's not actually drawing down its forces from NATO operations yet:

  "Due to poor weather conditions over the last few days in Libya, the United States has approved a request by NATO to extend the use of some U.S. strike aircraft. These aircraft will continue to conduct and support Alliance air-to-ground missions throughout this weekend."

• Timestamp: 

  5:05am

  Injured bothers Ali Bachir Chikh (R), 15, and Mohammed Bachir Chikh, 12, rest inside the Turkish ship carrying 250 wounded people from the besieged Libyan city of Misurata, at a port in Benghazi yesterday.

  

  [Image by Reuters]
• Timestamp: 

  3:03am

  While much of the international community is preoccupied with Libya's ongoing air war, Turkey has sent humanitarian assistance in the form of a hospital ferry.

  The 'Ankara' has rescued about 250 severely injured people from Misurata.

  Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee has more:

• Timestamp: 

  2:14am

  The United States has agreed to a NATO request to conduct air strikes on Libya through Monday, the Pentagon confirmed to Al Jazeera.

  The US military had planned to begin withdrawing its combat jets and Tomahawk missiles from the air campaign against Libya's regime this weekend, as NATO allies were to take the lead in bombing Gaddafi's forces.

  Al Jazeera's John Terret, reporting from Washington DC, said that the US was always going to be on standby to step in if and when NATO required. "But clearly that request has come far sooner than the US was probably expecting," Terret said.

• Timestamp: 

  12:22am

  Opposition fighters in Libya have over the last two days been attempting to get more organised, but continue to face difficulties inherent in their lack of training and equipment.

  Al Jazeera's James Bays met with some of the fighters near Ajdabiya, in eastern Libya.

• Timestamp: 

  12:09am

  Chad has called on coalition forces to protect its citizens in opposition-held areas, saying dozens had been accused and executed for allegedly being mercenaries paid by Gaddafi.

  "Since the beginning of the Libyan crisis, Chadians in Libya, especially those in areas controlled by the transitional national council, have been singled out," a statement from Chad's government spokesman Kalzeubet Pahimi Deubet said.

  "Dozens of Chadians have known this sad fate." 

  The statement said several Chadian nationals had been arrested, some were "paraded on television as mercenaries and sometimes executed" despite denials that Libya had recruited any mercenaries from its southern neighbour.

• Timestamp: 

  12:05am

  As Libya's deputy foreign minister meets the Greek prime minister in Athens, the editor of the Greek magazine Odyssey tells Al Jazeera that Greece doesn't believe there is a military solution to the conflict in Libya.

  "Generally when there is an action with which it doesn't agree, Greece tends to take a line of compliance and conformity with its NATO obligations, which means it provides airspace, territorial waters and bases, which it is contractually obliged to provide," John Psaropoulous said. 

  "However, Greece does not actively participate in the fighting and this is a policy it followed for instance in Afghanistan, where Greece has medical units and police training ... but doesn't actively participate in fighting in the south of the country.

  "This is what happened here - Greece provided territorial waters southwest of Crete for the French aircraft carrier that launched strikes into Libya but didn't actually provide any men and material for those strikes."

• Timestamp: 

  12:02am

  In a bit of good news emerging out of Libya, Lotfi Al Masoudi, one of four Al Jazeera journalists detained by Libyan forces has been released.

  An Al Jazeera spokesman said that the network is "glad to see the end of the ordeal that Lotfi unnecessarily went through" while calling for the immediate release of his colleagues.

  Read more here.

• Timestamp: 

  12:00am

  Welcome to today's liveblog.

  We'll be keeping you up to date with breaking news and reports as they emerge from Libya. But if you feel there's something you've missed, you can always check out yesterday's blog by clicking here.

  And don't forget, you can also tune into our live TV feed online: Watch Al Jazeera